The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-11
ANNA K. GREEN, AurHoREss
rNew York Nail.l

New York Nail.l Anna Katherine Green, the author of "The Leavenworth Case" lives in South Brooklyn, in cosy little brick house something after the Queen Anne style, where as Mrs. Rohlfs, the name by which she Is known outside her novels, she manages to vibrate be- tween writing desk and nursery in the same cheery, comfortable fashion in which most literary women who are at the same time mothers do.
 How did you, being woman, come to be so we'll up in detective cascs?" sine was asked the other day.
 "I don't believe could tell you" was the reply. ''It may seem q strange confession to make, coming from a woman who has written more detec- tive stories than anything else, but was never inside court room in my l.fe. never knew detective. and I never had any personal experience that would give me knowledge of matters of that sort"
 "iow can you write intelligcntly then of the tricks of a trade that you have not learned 2"
 "l don't know. Ii has seemed to me instinct always, When first thought ot writing it was the unrav- cling of the clues that would lead to the detection of a crime that seemed the subject that was made for me. l carried the germ of The Leavenworth Case in my mind from the time l was If years old. When the time came to write it couldn't help do- ing SO"
 You never made study of the phases of actual criminal life. then. for the color of your tales :"
 Not especially, no. When l have wished To describe the robbery of a bank have gone to look the entrance and exits over, not to make mistakes that would be absurd to business men in writing up long trial, aS in one of my books. l have studied the statutes not to be out of the way in my law. But as for studying criminals from the life, have never done that at all 1t was one of the promises my huS- band made me before we were mar ried that he would take me through the quarters to see something of low life in New York, but somehow we have never found time after all. IIu- man nature is much the same in everybody; a criminal iS Il man or a woman. and as for the details of de- tective business, l put my wits to work and let my scouts do exactly as under the same circumstances l would do myself.
 "Then doesn't it happen that your men do things differently from the of ficers ill real life :"
 Ut may be so, of course but, after all. the newspaper incidents, supposed to stand for actual facts that have utilized sometimes, are the things that the critics have bounced upon as being unreal l don't know that when l have trusted to human nature and common sense have ever been accused of want of life likeness at all. Any writer will tell you that ii is al- ways the truth and not the product of your imagination that people won't believe"
 Do you write rapidly :"
 "Sometimes and sometimes not. It is the development of the plot that interests me. A love tale or society drama or q character sketch without n strong thread of story couldn't write at all"
 Mrs. Rohlfs is fortunate above most literary women in having husband who plays the part of Ccberus, the watch dog. shielding her from inter- ruption as their wives are supposed to guard literary men. She is young, and, like most writers who have made a success in one specially. sets more value on appreciation in another line Her detective stories. the first of which, "Thc Leavenworth Case" gave her standing and has been followed by number of others since, are not to her of anything like the consequence of volume of her poems collected this spring.